Many products are available for controlling rodents, such as rats and mice, and insects, such as ants. Such products usually employ an inert substance combined with a rodenticide. However, products with a toxicant may only be used in carefully selected areas to avoid contaminating food supplies, water supplies, domestic animals and people. Further, products using a rodenticide are undesirable because an animal, bird, or reptile feeding on a poisoned rat or mouse may also die from the toxic product. As used in this specification, the word "toxicant" is intended to mean a poisonous additive.
Examples of such prior art products can be found in the following: U.S. Pat. No. 1,952,977 which was issued Mar. 27, 1934 to J. Bernard Edmonds for "Method of Treating Red Squill for Use as a Rodent Exterminator"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,183 which was issued Sep. 1, 1981 to John D. Hagerman and Brenda M. Hagerman for "Method for Killing Rodents"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,139 which was issued Apr. 5, 1983 to Ray F. Dawson for "Anticoagulant Rodenticide With Laceration Means"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,580 which was issued May 21, 1985 to Nunzio R. Pasarela for "Expanded Corncob Grits Having Increased Absorptivity and a Method for the Preparation thereof; U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,378 which was issued Apr. 8, 1986 to Remus Lazar and Emil P. Lira for "Rodenticide Compositions Comprising an Artificial Sweetener and a Rodenticide"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,923 which was issued Mar. 28, 1989 to Raymon W. Lush for "Sweet Corn Based Rodenticide"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,564 which was issued May 28, 1991 to H. Edward Lowe, Ricky L. Yoder and Clayton C. Nelson for "Non-Clay Agricultural Granule"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,321 which was issued Jul. 21, 1992 to Garland G. Corey for "Anticoagulant/Surfactant Rodenticidal Compositions and Method"; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,556 which was issued Mar. 1, 1994 to Gerald H. McKibben, Joseph C. Dickens and James W. Smith for "Plastic Bait Composition for Attracting and Killing Crop Pests".
Some non-toxic bait compositions have been disclosed in the prior art. These include U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,935 which was issued Feb. 16, 1993 to John W. Tucker for "Insecticidal Bait Composition and Method of Making Same".